LEADING PRAYER GROUPS
Leading a prayer group
Acts 2:42. ‘They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.’
This verse about the community of believers in the early church contains the elements of a good prayer gathering as believers devote themselves to God.
As a rule, we usually ‘enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise’, sometimes through testimony of what He has done recently, all of which leads to worship. We use instruments, CD’s, live You Tube worship and lyrics, as seems appropriate at the time. We do prepare songs and music, but go with the flow as well, following the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Teaching in some way always figures in our prayer meetings. Some input from the bible on a theme or subject. We often read the scriptures together and allow God to reveal areas for prayer through His word. We often follow the bible passages for the day in bible reading schemes for reading the bible in a year. (This includes extracts from the Old Testament, New Testament and Psalms or Proverbs.)
The Fellowship includes worship and sharing the word together for prayer, but also includes our attitudes towards one another…interest in one another’s lives, and occasions to eat a meal together after the prayer gathering. As we start at 9am and finish at 12 noon, we usually have a break for fellowship at about 11am for about 20 minutes during the meeting.
Breaking of Bread is always part of our worship, and we thereby ensure the opportunity to celebrate Jesus, receive healing, and to be forgiven. It is usually brief, but important.
Prayer is woven into various other aspects, but we do take time to wait on the Lord or be led from scripture, or simply to share things we know of that are of concern to our hearts. There is often a real flow to this. We also discipline ourselves to use relevant news items from Christian ministries for prayer, or using published prayer guides in the subject we are praying into.
Currently, we hold three prayer groups a week in our home…the home is such a useful facility for this! One morning is for refugees and the needy in our nation and beyond, the second for Israel, the third for Cyprus.
When new people join us, we usually lay a few basic foundational guidelines for praying together: Keep the prayer short, keep the prayer relevant, speak up, etc.
Guidelines for PUBLIC prayer meetings.
Hebrews 13:17. Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you
‘A man under authority’ Matthew 8v9. Under the authority of God. 1 Corinthians 11v1-3.
Proverbs 10:17. He who heeds discipline shows the way to life, but whoever ignores correction leads others astray.
Prayer meeting Holy Spirit led.
Romans 8:26-27. …the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will
Mobiles off or on silent mode
Speak so can be heard
KEEP IT SHORT (recognise anointing). Leader will STOP you if you don’t.
KEEP TO THE SUBJECT (to the point, to the leader’s direction) Leader will STOP you if you don’t.
(In PRIVATE, can pray as long as you want and cover whatever ground!)